Need assistance figuring out what keeps killing these sticks :(

ChaoticMonk

A while back I had lent a friend a stock 360 brawlstick and after a few weeks it stopped connecting. When plugging it in to the 360 the player LED lights come on and it does the circle pattern (before it stops on player led) then just goes off after 2 secs.
I tried different USB ports on the console, multiple other consoles and even PC but same result with all of them.

I ended up just chalking this up to a faulty PCB and gave the friend a stock SE with a JLF. A month or so later the JLF stick started missing some inputs and would stick a bit (hold right, let go but the character keeps moving for a split second more even though stick returned to neutral). I assumed the JLF must've had an issue (although I had it for over a year it hadn't been installed prior) but didn't have my kit to replace it on me so let the friend take it home but a few days later the stick stopped working (buttons still worked). Tried it on PC and different console but still the JLF was dead so I replaced it with the stock SE stick and a different JLF and neither worked but strangely enough, when we took it to a casual session and tried it on a different console it worked (continued to have the 'sticking' issue) but stopped working again after the friend took it back to his place.

Both SE and Brawlstick did not have any of the pcb/connections tampered with (still had the glue on there) and the only odd thing I noticed was there was a little rust forming on the SE's base screws but I assumed it might be due to the protective layer being stripped when taking the screws off/on.

Someone mentioned I should check to see if signals are being sent in the brawlstick and I do have a volt/multimeter but I have no clue what setting to use or which contact points to test.

Anyone experience anything like this or have any suggestions on what may be causing it or how to fix it?

P. Gorath

has your friend had problems with any of his other controllers? how old is his xbox? maybe he has a ground or power supply issue that is shorting out the sticks?

...or maybe he's getting frustrated and physically doing something to the stick that can't be seen on the outside?

ChaoticMonk

Nah, he treats them fine so no concern there.
He doesn't have any issues with his 360 controllers and has both an old white and a new black 360. As far as I'm aware the SE wasn't used on the white 360 but the brawstick was. I've used my stick on the white 360 once and stick still works fine so not sure if thats it (maybe cause it wasn't prolonged?).

Gorilla White

P. Gorath, post: 7684418, member: 505 wrote:

...or maybe he's getting frustrated and physically doing something to the stick that can't be seen on the outside?

I was thinking the same thing.

ChaoticMonk

Gorilla White, post: 7684857, member: 20280 wrote:

I was thinking the same thing.

I know it aint that so I have no concern there.

I do have an update, he switched the stick mode to DP and directions came back to life (remember, they died even when switching sticks) however, they still suffer from input not returning to neutral as quick as the stick does (I can make a vid of this if needed)

Gorilla White

Thats weird. I have no clue what could be causing it to mess up.

DarkBuu

Sounds like what happened to my brothers TE after I accidently dripped some water into the guide button. After a few days of having similar issues, we opened it up and cleaned the pcb for the guide button and switches and it worked fine after.

ahdonye

is he leaving the stick plugged in while the console is off? Xbox 360s will charge controllers even when the console is off. I noticed when I had left My Qanba stick plugged in, that lights on the stick were still on. I'm not sure how this could kill the sticks, but it may be something to check into.

ChaoticMonk

Thanks for the posts guys. I told him to keep it unplugged when not in use just in case.
On the SE, switching it to DP mode and replacing the stick with a new JLF seems to have done the trick.
No luck on the brawlstick though, maybe a dud pcb or something =/